Let Care Shine Through

Care is in the eyes of the receiver; it doesn\u27t exist unless those being cared for experience it. The authors describe culturally relevant critical teacher care, an approach that considers the effects of students\u27 cultural and socioeconomic conditions and that helps teachers find ways to show care to every learner—especially those from oppressed groups. Bondy and Hambacher describe three principles of this care for students (having political clarity, embodying critical hope, and sticking to asset-based thinking). They describe four helpful practices that they observed in a long-term study of two effective 5th grade teachers. These teachers embodied a culturally relevant approach to supporting students: expanding the meaning of achievement; overhauling deficit thinking; offering high expectations and support; and teaching with urgency

Becoming warm demanders: Perspectives and practices of first-year teachers

In the literature on culturally responsive pedagogy warm demanders are teachers who embrace values and enact practices that are central to their students’ success. Few scholars have examined the experience of novice teachers who attempt to enact this stance. In this study of two first-year, female, European American teachers who attempted to be warm demanders for their predominantly African American elementary school students, the authors answer the question, “How do the teachers think about and enact warm demanding?” The teachers’ contrasting experiences have implications for administrators and teacher educators

Learning and Unlearning Racial Prejudice: The Role of Schools

Implicit and unexamined prejudice learned within a culture of systemic racism undoubtedly contributed to the fact that George Zimmerman saw a young Black male as a threat to his gated, townhouse community. This is not an isolated incident, and racial attitudes do not seem to be improving. An Associated Press poll released in October 2012, reported that racial prejudice has increased since 2008 and that over half of White Americans express “explicitly anti-Black sentiments.” We draw on scholarship in education to examine the role that schools and school systems play in reinforcing racial prejudice, particularly as related to Black boys. We present strategic actions that school systems, schools, and teachers can take to counter stereotyped messages about Black youth, messages that are so powerfully communicated within schools and the broader society that even those who question their validity are impacted implicitly

Elementary Preservice Teachers as Warm Demanders in an African American School

The literature related to warm demanding describes teachers who balance care and authority to create a learning environment that supports a culture of achievement for African American students. Embedded in this stance is sociopolitical consciousness that explicitly links teachers’ care and authority with a larger social justice agenda. Drawing on interviews and online course assignments, we describe two preservice teachers’ conceptions and enactments of warm demanding in full-time elementary school internships in an African American elementary school. Findings reveal that although the preservice teachers communicated similar commitments to warm demanding, they enacted the stance differently, suggesting that while warm demanders share similar commitments, their practice may vary. The two cases highlight the promise of teacher education courses and field experiences to be structured in ways that promote the development of teacher aptitudes for strengthening equity and excellence in the education of an historically marginalized population of students

Tinker, Tailor, Supervisor, Spy: Lessons Learned from Distant Supervision

This study investigates the transition from a local to a distant model of clinical intern supervision at a large, public, research university. Interviews were conducted with supervisors who had participated in local and distant supervision to explore challenges and adaptations throughout the first year of the distant model. Aside from areas of consensus, such as difficulties with communication, observations, coaching, and seminar meetings, the supervisors revealed distinctly different responses to the expectation of carrying out the distant supervision model with fidelity. Positioning theory provided helpful insight into the range of experiences and reactions within the interview data. Our findings suggest that as programs continue to experiment with distant supervision, they may wish to democratize the process through collaborative inquiry in which multiple players tinker and tailor to support intern learning

Developing Critical Social Justice Literacy in an Online Seminar

The purpose of this article is to report on an effort to cultivate a critical social justice perspective and critical social justice praxis among educators enrolled in an online graduate program. Although the entire program was organized around themes of equity, collaboration, and leadership, this study focused on educators’ perspectives of the purposes, pedagogy, and outcomes of one course, Critical Pedagogy. Fourteen of the 19 students enrolled in the online course participated in one of six online focus groups following the conclusion of the course. Using constructivist grounded theory methods, the researchers identified the different ways in which students responded to the course, what they learned, and how they enacted their learning as well as the features of the course that the students believed contributed to their learning and practice. The study provides insight into features of online pedagogy that appear to facilitate transformative learning. It further provides insight into the kinds of content and assignments that may promote critical social justice praxis among educators

Quantifying the impact of community quarantine on SARS transmission in Ontario: estimation of secondary case count difference and number needed to quarantine

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Community quarantine is controversial, and the decision to use and prepare for it should be informed by specific quantitative evidence of benefit. Case-study reports on 2002-2004 SARS outbreaks have discussed the role of quarantine in the community in transmission. However, this literature has not yielded quantitative estimates of the reduction in secondary cases attributable to quarantine as would be seen in other areas of health policy and cost-effectiveness analysis.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Using data from the 2003 Ontario, Canada, SARS outbreak, two novel expressions for the impact of quarantine are presented. Secondary Case Count Difference (SCCD) reflects reduction in the average number of transmissions arising from a SARS case in quarantine, relative to not in quarantine, at onset of symptoms. SCCD was estimated using Poisson and negative binomial regression models (with identity link function) comparing the number of secondary cases to each index case for quarantine relative to non-quarantined index cases. The inverse of this statistic is proposed as the number needed to quarantine (NNQ) to prevent one additional secondary transmission.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our estimated SCCD was 0.133 fewer secondary cases per quarantined versus non-quarantined index case; and a NNQ of 7.5 exposed individuals to be placed in community quarantine to prevent one additional case of transmission in the community. This analysis suggests quarantine can be an effective preventive measure, although these estimates lack statistical precision.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Relative to other health policy areas, literature on quarantine tends to lack in quantitative expressions of effectiveness, or agreement on how best to report differences in outcomes attributable to control measure. We hope to further this discussion through presentation of means to calculate and express the impact of population control measures. The study of quarantine effectiveness presents several methodological and statistical challenges. Further research and discussion are needed to understand the costs and benefits of enacting quarantine, and this includes a discussion of how quantitative benefit should be communicated to decision-makers and the public, and evaluated.</p